Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Thoughts on human selfishness
Thoughts on human selfishness
An article on selfishness
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Thoughts on human selfishness
All humans are selfish on instinct, the will to survive being an innate trait that all humans are born with, but most people don’t give this selfishness a second thought despite having the brain power to do so. It has become so natural for people to act based on their own personal interests that someone who observes more than acts can see the consequences that come with that way of living. In my life I observe far too many people around me making selfish decisions to only benefit themselves. I can willingly admit I’m not the pinnacle of selflessness either, since selfishness is a survival mechanism that is deeply ingrained in the human DNA, but I spare people second thoughts and glances. I instill deep emotional values and strive towards being a selfless being in my daily life.
This value and goal of selflessness has impacted my relationships with other people and myself. Shortly after my father died, I developed a subconscious bond to an unselfish ideal. It has been
…show more content…
Being proud of myself for helping others and receiving their approval is not selfish. I do not help in order to cause other people to hold pride in me, I help because I’ve been asked. I do not commit selfless acts because of the benefits I will receive if people see me as such. Logic and an unwillingness to believe gives others an excuse to put selflessness under a scrutiny that I do not wish to be under, so I let the general public see me as a teenager who is as selfish as the rest. Unselfish acts are put under scrutiny because humans do not believe that overriding something so basic can be possible and because being unselfish seems like a legend to them. This is a challenge to my value because it is so difficult to be selfless when others tell you that it isn’t possible. Part of committing to being selfless is having the hope that it is possible, but I haven’t lost my hope
Can being selfish ever be acceptable? Anthem by Ayn Rand and the song “I Get Out” by Lauryn Hill share a similar theme relating to selfishness. “I Get Out” expresses the theme that man should be selfish, with Hill singing of reaching a new and better life strictly for her benefit . In comparison, the theme of Anthem is that one should praise man’s ego and, again, allow themselves to be selfish. Anthem focuses on standing out from the crowd and expressing individual interests for their own sake when Equality, a young man forced into a collectivist society, finally chooses to escape to an independent land.. Both Anthem and “I Get Out” possess the similar theme that man should be selfish, based on both Hill and Equality’s knowledge of better life, their repression by leaders of their society, and the strength of their quest for freedom.
Is human nature inherently selfless or selfish? Although a seemingly simple concept, the aforementioned question has long been a profoundly controversial topic. While many claim that humans are intrinsically compassionate and inclined to help those in need, others argue that people instinctively prioritize their own individual security over other people’s welfares. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s literary works, “Young Goodman Brown” and The Scarlett Letter, as well as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s renowned novel, The Great Gatsby, all reference the idea that people impulsively pursue perfection, as determined by their community’s values. While different communities establish different standards for perfection, society as whole romanticizes the idea of perfection and subsequently people strive to create the illusion of a perfect life. How an individual represents the values idealized by a given community determines his/her reputation in that community. Although people may appear to wholesomely follow the values idolized by their community, in reality, human nature is inherently flawed, making it impossible for people to achieve perfection.
The descriptive claim made by Psychological Egoists is that humans, by nature, are motivated only by self-interest. Any act, no matter how altruistic it may seem on the outside is actually only a disguise for a selfish desire such as recognition, avoiding guilt, reward or sense of personal ‘goodness’ or morality. For example, Mother Teresa is just using the poor for her own long-term spiritual gain. Being a universal claim, it could falter with a single counterexample. And being that I believe this claim to be bunk I will tell you why!
Whether human nature is fundamentally selfish or altruistic is a question that challenge lots of researchers back in the time, and even today. Some people, such as Thomas Hobbes, claimed that man 's nature is basically evil and selfish. However, Joseph Butler, a philosopher, disagreed with this idea. For him, goodness consists in having what he calls the ‘principle of reflection’ govern and control our passions. People always want to know the true, but there is no answer for this question, so we have to find it out base on our knowledge and beliefs. It is important to know what is our true identity when we were born. In my mind, no one is perfect, everyone has the dark-side in themselves. People cannot deny that there is no mistake have
If one wishes to be a psychological egoist, then one needs to explain why people do certain actions that appear to be genuine acts of altruism.
Every ethical theory suggests certain action that someone ought to do. Whether it be the interest in other or in the interest of one's self. It’s the case that people never do something that they don’t want to do, but is that really bad? What can make an act selfish is not that you’d like do the act, what act you want to do. For example, if I want to help a homeless person buy food, my act is not selfish, even though I do something that I wanted to do out of my own desire. Although if I trick my younger siblings into giving the biggest cookie in the jar, then my act is selfish, not because it’s something I wanted to do but because it’s an act that serves meself at another's
The idea of self-sacrifice seems relatively common-sense to most of us: we forgo some current potential good in order to maximise either the good of someone we care about, or our own later good. Richard Brandt (1972) includes altruistic desires in his definition of self-interest: "if I really desire the happiness of my daughter, or the discomfiture of my department chairman ... then getting that desire satisfied ... counts as being an enhancement of my utility or welfare ... to an extent corresponding to how strongly I want that outcome." The key point here is that by this definition of self-interest, an altruistic act must have a number of conditions in order to be classed as self-sacrifice. Ove...
With the development of modern society, many people say that the society has become miserable, and people only care their own profit. The self-interest is becoming the object of attacking. Thereupon, when we mention self- interest, people always mix up the concept of self-interest with selfishness. As we all known, the idea of selfishness is, “Abusing others, exploiting others, using others for their own advantage – doing something to others.” (Hospers, 59) Selfish people have no ethics, morals and standards when they do anything. At the same time, what is self – interest? Self- interest can be defined as egoism, which means a person is, “looking out for your own welfare.” (Hospers, 39) The welfare people talk about is nothing more than
Even forms of human beings preforming selfless acts derives from ones desire to help others, which in a way makes that person feel importance. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, better known as Mother Teresa, devoted her life to helping those in great need. To many these acts may appear as selfless and gallant acts that are not performed by anyone with any type of ego. Yet when taking a psychological look at why she performed such acts they may appear a somewhat more for herself. Every time anyone does anything, even when for someone else, they are doing it for some type of feeling that they experience. With the holiday season approaching, there will be a specific emphasis on giving unlike any other time of the year. We give yes to show gratitude for someone we love, but also to experience the joy in seeing someone enjoy something they them self-caused. Even while being selfless humans have the unique ability to still be doing something that involves caring for them self. This outlook toward the human condition completely debunks Wolf’s claim that “when caring about yourself you are living as if you are the center of the universe.” When choosing to do anything positive or negative, for others or for yourself, you are still taking your self-interest into consideration, making it
People perpetrate seemingly selfless acts almost daily. You see it all over the news; the man who saved that woman from a burning building, the mother who sacrificed herself to protect her children from the bomb blast. But how benevolent are these actions? Are these so-called “heroes” really sacrificing themselves to help others? Until recently, it was the common belief that altruism, or selfless and unconditional kindness, was limited primarily to the human race. However, within the last century, the works of several scientists, most prominently George Price, have provided substantial evidence concluding that altruism is nothing more than a survival technique, one that can be calculated with a simple equation.
A lot of people today are more focused on themselves and how they can advance instead of being on others and being selfless. Sure, my mom comes to mind when I think about what it meant for her to be a young single parent. She has spoken of times when she’s given my sister and I food over herself because she couldn’t afford to feed all of us. She had always put herself and her needs last when my sister and I were growing up. If we needed things, she would go without so that we could have clothes, food, etc. When I was in high school, our neighbor had lost their job and were being evicted. My mom took her in even though she was also unemployed and barely making ends meet and made sure she was taken care of. That was my mother then, but the mother I have now is lost and has gone off the path of what it means to practice humility. I’ll save that story for another
There are many definitions for the term altruism, and each definition describes different ways individuals think about the relevance of one’s behavior. Some individuals have argued that altruism has nothing to do with an individual performing an act of kindness or good will toward others. In fact, there are many who argue that it is impossible for altruism to exist. The reason is because; they believe that when people perform an act of kindness they also have an alternative motive, whether it is to feel good about themselves, to receive something in return or ...
For someone who believes in psychological egoism, i t is difficult to find an action that would be acknowledged as purely altruistic. In practice, altruism, is the performance of duties to others with no view to any sort of personal...
...esult, the more directly one sees their personal efforts impact someone else, the more happiness one can gain from the experience of giving. Sometimes generosity requires pushing past a feeling of reluctance because people all instinctively want to keep good things for themselves, but once one is over this feeling, they will feel satisfaction in knowing that they have made a difference in someone else’s life. However, if one lives without generosity but is not selfish, they can still have pleasure from other virtues.
...y altruistic-concerned with the welfare of others and not theirs-then any altruistic action would not begin in the first place (Oren, 2010). This is because none of the agents in the altruistic world would need any help from other altruistic agents. This argument is purely philosophical and has the necessary mathematical rigor required. However, the major argument that chief opponents of altruism put forward is the idea of self-responsibility. Under ordinary conditions, an individual has no obligation to help others. In this regard, people should only engage in actions that are personally rewarding. Moreover, being concerned with the welfare of others at the expense of one’s own amounts to self-neglect; this is true since true altruism dictates that agents have no personal interests. This implies that agents in altruistic world take no responsibility for themselves.